Delivering CX in the Moments that Matter: An Interview with Matt Blakely of Motorola Solutions Foundation

Matt Blakely, Director of Inclusion, Diversity, and Outreach for Motorola Solutions (NSYE: MSI) not only has a very interesting title, but says he has the best job in the company.

During an interview at ModernCX 2018, we asked Matt how Motorola Solutions uses CX technology to help create life-changing experiences, as well as how the company’s philanthropic organization, Motorola Solutions Foundation, is changing the employee experience.

Watch our interview with Matt and read our Q&A below.

Can you tell us a little bit about your role and about Motorola Solutions’ mission?

And my role — I have the best job in the company actually. I help to direct the company’s charitable and philanthropic giving, and its employee volunteerism through our Motorola Solutions Foundation.

Additionally, as the Senior Director of Inclusion and Diversity, I get to influence how we continue to create a culture where we view diversity as an innovation-driver that helps us deliver technology that serves as a lifeline for our customers. We take a broad view of diversity, seeking different cultures, opinions and abilities to help us continue building on our 90-year heritage of innovation.

Can you tell us about the Motorola Solutions Foundation?

Motorola Solutions Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the company. We were established in 1953, and our job is to support charitable education causes around the world where our employees live and work.

Since 1995, the Foundation has provided more than $300 million in strategic grants that focus in three main areas:

First is hands-on technology and engineering education, especially for students and groups who are underrepresented in careers in technology or engineering.

Second is supporting public safety and public safety education, which could be education for our first responders, on ways to make their jobs more efficient or more effective. First responders are law enforcement, fire service, government agencies, and other agencies that deal with public safety. We also support families of fallen first responders. And then also community preparedness and community disaster relief.

Our third area that we support are our employee volunteers. We’ve got 16,000 incredible employees all around the world, and they love getting out into the community. In the last three years, our employees have donated nearly 100,000 volunteer hours. We support their volunteerism efforts through Dollars for Doers programs, or volunteerism awards programs, or supporting the agencies that teams of our employees go out to volunteer with.

Can you give us a few key takeaways from your session at ModernCX called “Delivering CX During Emergencies”?

I think helping people be the best in the moments that matter, which is our company’s purpose, is very important. Especially with the customers that we have. Our customers, as I mentioned, are first responders, law enforcement officers and fire service professionals, and major industries all around the world.

And when a disaster strikes, whether it’s man-made or a natural disaster, it’s important for our company to be there and help support our customers as they make sure that their communities are safe and taken care of. From there we’ve learned lessons, and this session was really great in emphasizing that. That all companies need to be there. All companies need to be prepared, have their customers prepared, in order to respond to disasters or be prepared to respond to disasters, and also be flexible. It’s hard to predict what disasters are going to strike next, whether they’re natural or man-made, and putting together a flexible plan within your company to support your customers is very important.

What CX technologies are you excited about that are really helping in your work?

There are a lot of technologies out there that are really helping in our work. From a company perspective, we’re developing new ways that law enforcement, fire service, or public safety professionals can interact with each other, can predict what’s going to happen in an emergency, or predict where emergencies or crises may actually happen. And how to best deploy the resources in order to make sure that that crisis is either completely averted or is as limited as possible.

On our philanthropic side, we’re using a lot of new technologies and new ways to reach out to our employees to make sure that they’re up to date on the giving that we’re doing in the community or the opportunities that they have to either support their own employee volunteerism or support the causes that they care about.

What advice do you have for other CX leaders, or for someone who wants to pursue a role like yours?

I would say a couple things. Use your network. Understand what issues people are facing in their own jobs. And also understand what’s going on in the community. I would say join the board of a non-profit organization. Or not only volunteer with a non-profit organization, but organize other volunteers in order to do it. If your company or your organization has a philanthropic arm like we do at Motorola Solutions Foundation, see how you can get involved. See how you can help look at charities and analyze charities and the work that they do. The non-profit sector is different from the for-profit sector in many ways. And understand what motivates and what drives the non-profit sector is important to doing what I do.

Also, I would say to reach out to people who are different than you. If there’s someone in your company that has a different background or a different level of education, or different beliefs in some way, sit down, talk with them, understand what motivates them. What makes them feel comfortable within the company, or what would make them feel more comfortable within the company. And that would help you not only necessarily get into careers like mine, but it would help your company overall or your organization overall become much more inclusive.

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